The present invention relates to a thermal printing apparatus for printing on flat materials and, more particular, to a postage meter utilizing thermal printing of a postage indicia on envelopes.
Conventionally, a thermal printing apparatus of the type used to print postage includes a deck with an aligned registration wall. Mounted to the registration wall is a thermal print head and transfer ribbon cassette. The mounting of the thermal print head and transfer ribbon cassette are aligned to produce a printed image on a envelope properly positioned under the control of a micro control system.
Conventionally, a thermal printing postage metering apparatus operates at a single operating speed which restricts the envelope paper stock quality which may be processed by the thermal postage meter. It is known in the art of thermal printing that thermal printing cycle speeds are set to operate at a single cycle speed optimized to provide a specified print quality as a function of paper stock. Therefore, with respect to postage meter print operation where print quality is required to be relatively high to prevent fraud, the envelope paper stock which may be processed at the prescribed print cycle speed is limited in order to preserve print quality.